Does Religion Cause War Essay

Does Religion Cause War?

Religion is a cause of all wars, is a phrase which is often heard and said by many. The question here is, does religion really cause wars? It may not be the reason for all the wars that have taken place since this world came into existence but several wars which have been fought in the past and today are done so on the basis of religion.

Religious wars are ones which are fought and then justified by religion. These wars can involve one nation fighting against another who have different beliefs and they can also involve people of the same religion fighting but who belong to different sects. Since the beginning of time, it has been in human nature to wage wars because of religion. There are several reasons as to why religion may lead to war. Firstly, there have been instances where people from one religion have tried to compel others to adopt their beliefs. Humans have an innate tendency to wants others to submit to what they believe in and with war this can be accomplished. Another reason as to why war is caused by religion is that nations go on war with different nations not to convert but to wipe them out because they assume that they are not fit to populate a particular geographical area. In one way or the other, it is merely expressing biasness against a religious group that does not confer to one's own beliefs. Lastly, nations or people go on war with one another not to convert or eliminate them from a particular area, but because the level of trust between them is

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Religious War

Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a warrior in the holy wars? Well, you mightn't want to. These wars included lots of torment and bloodshed of the religious leaders. These oppositions of religion were entirely wrong. Religious leaders showed hatred and anger to other religions, resulting in them having wars.

To begin with, two of the three religions that were fighting in the religiouswar were against slaughter and murder. As stated in the Ten Commandments of the Torah, "Thous shalt not kill." They all should've listened to this commandment, but, instead, they attacked each other . On the other hand, people might say, "The religions fighting in the wars were just defending themselves." Said quote could most likely be wrong, though, because someone would've had to start these wars in the first place....show more content...

As stated on an article on Wikipedia about religious wars, "A holy war is a war primarily caused or justified by differences inreligion." This evidence explains to us that the leaders of the religions were against each other's beliefs. Others might say, however, "Their ideas probably just conflicted with each other." This reason is most likely wrong because they fought for the differences in their beliefs and not for their

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RELIGION CAUSES WAR: PROS AND CONS

There are many arguments and counter–arguments when discussing the topic of religion causing war. Many critics argue that throughout history, religion has been the single greatest source of human–caused wars, suffering, and misery. In the name of God (by whatever name), more suffering has been inflicted than by any other man–made cause. (Pro Side) Critics on the other side counter that modern secular ideological movements are actually responsible for much greater and more indiscriminate violence than any religion ever has been. (Con Side)

They further contend that the claim that religion causes war is not supported by the historical or contemporary evidence. They maintain that only 7 (10%) of all...show more content... Let us see.

Religious differences during the period of time coinciding with WWII led to discord between the people of Europe, whereby the Nazi Party rose upon a particular man's religious views.

A passage from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf states, "...today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." The Nazi Party blamed the Jewish people for the loss of World War I. It is beyond argument that by 1945, the genocide of six million Jewish people had been committed as a direct result of Hitler's religious views. Bellum sacrum.

With respect to the American Civil War, Wikipedia references a body of scholarship, led by Mark Knoll, that has highlighted the fact that the American debate over slavery became a shooting war in part because the two sides reached diametrically opposite conclusions based on reading the same authoritative source of guidance on moral questions: the King James Version of the Bible.

Specifically, the pro–slavery South could point to slaveholding by the godly patriarch Abraham (Gen 12:5; 14:14; 24:35–36; 26:13–14), a practice that was later incorporated into Israelite national law (Lev 25:44–46). It was never denounced by Jesus, who made slavery a model of discipleship (Mk 10:44). The Apostle Paul supported slavery, counseling obedience to earthly masters (Eph 6:5–9; Col 3:22–25) as a

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1.Introduction: Religions and the Holy Texts "Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians...and (all) who believe in God and the last day and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."1 How true is this statement and to what extent do religions not fight each other? Unfortunately, looking back at the holy texts of various religions provides no answers. There are elements and contexts in all of them, which can be correlated with both tolerance and intolerance, indeed contradictory and confusing. Not to forget that those texts are usually abstract, vague, and implicit with ambiguity and every translation is an...show more content...

The concept of 'Jihad' was used in order to justify the fight for the 'injustice of poverty' (not fight towards non–believers). When a subsequent Khalifah, Bakr was selected, many were claiming themselves the subsequent prophet after Prophet Muhammad. In order to gain recognition and achieve unity in the Islamic world, he launched wars to the surrounding areas. The conquest was continued by his successors as the expansion of power contributed to the accumulation of wealth and talent, finally constituting the grand Islamic civilisation. During that time, the Christians and other believers lived peacefully with the Muslims, paid tax and were well protected.3 These series of 'Jihad' depicted the natural rise of a civilisation, like any other civilisations in the world history. They do not fit in the usual conception of 'religious wars' that one has in mind, which are battles with explicit aim to exterminate other religions. Subsequently, in the 11th century in Europe, the crusades were summoned by Pope Urban II, to free Jerusalem from Seljuk Turks, who harassed peaceful Christian pilgrims to the holy land. The war ended after the explicit aim of freeing Jerusalem was achieved. The subsequent crusades in the region were mainly due to the struggle for dominance between Islamic and Christian powers after the establishment of Christian Kingdoms to harvest riches following the victory of the first crusade.4 Hence the very first war

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Does Religion Cause War?

Does religion cause war? On this planet Earth, there have been many wars fought over many different things. They can range from freedom, oil, and religion. There were many wars fought over religion. For example, the thirty years war. The thirty years war was one of the major wars fought over religion. It was mostly fought in what's now Germany. The thirty years war was one of the absolute longest and most destructive, and brutal conflicts in European history. The war was mainly between Protestants and Roman Catholics; although, this eventually turned into a war including most of the European powers. The major effect of The Thirty Years War was destroying entire regions. In Germany, the disease and famine greatly decreases population,...show more content...

It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originated in southern Sudan, the civil war spread to the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile by the end of the 1980s.Roughly two million people have died as a result of war, famine and disease caused by the conflict. Four million people in southern Sudan have been displaced at least once during the war. The final war I decided to do was the Lebanese Civil War. This war was a civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people (a quarter of the population) were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. After a short break in the fighting in 1976 due to Arab League mediation and Syrian intervention, Palestinian–;Lebanese strife continued, with fighting primarily focused in south Lebanon, which had been occupied by the PLO since 1969, in contravention of the Cairo accords signed with the Lebanese government. During the course of the fighting, alliances shifted rapidly and unpredictably: by the end of the war, nearly every party had allied with and subsequently betrayed every other party at least once. The 1980s were especially bleak: much of Beirut lay in ruins

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Conflict In Religious Conflict

The thesis states that women, minority and children are victimized in the name of religion during religious wars and riots. It further explores the impact of violence unleashed in the name of religion on the religious minority, women and children. The main objective of the thesis is to comprehend the complexity of human behavior during war and religious conflict as portrayed in the select contemporary novels and draw conclusions. The problem this thesis focuses on is the recurrent religious animosity and power mongering from the past to the present, and how it is dealt with in the contemporary novels. All the novels taken for study are from the developing countries. The religious conflicts portrayed in the novels also take place in the developing...show more content...

Religious conflicts take place when there is polarization in the name of religious identity to fight against each other on various issues such as the construction or demolition of a place of worship, matters concerning blasphemy, sacrilege, etc. Conflict occurs between or within religious groups. Inter religious conflict occurs between different religious groups whereas intra–religious conflict occurs within a particular religious group. Intra religious conflicts are common in almost all the major religions of the world. The conflict between the Catholicism and Protestantism in Christianity; Shia and Sunni in Islam; Hinayana, Theravada and Mahayana in Buddhism; Digambara and Swetambara in Jainism; Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Saktism and Smartism in Hinduism are a few in this regard. They fight with each other claiming that only their belief is genuine and what others believe is false. Inter religious conflicts occur between different religious groups due to various issues. The conflict between Christianity and Islam, between Islam and Hinduism, and between Sikhism and Islam are some

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Does Religion Cause War

Religion causes war. This is a matter of historical fact. Since time immemorial, men have fought each other in wars caused by religion. There are at least three instances by which religion causes war. The first is when people try to compel other people to adopt their religion or religious perspectives. This comes from our innate tendency to want other people to subscribe to our beliefs. That desire can be accompanied with a strong zeal such that if others are impervious to our peaceful approach to convert them to our beliefs, we can even resort to violence to achieve that end. History is replete with such examples. One example was shown during the initial propagation of Islam when the Prophet Mohammad actually declared a holy war against...show more content...

This kind of war that partakes of the nature of a cleansing act had its modern version in the Serbian Christians' attempt on ethnic cleansing to clear the newly created republic of Kosovo of its majority Muslim population so that the minority Christians of Kosovo could take over. Finally,religion causes war because people of different religious convictions can easily distrust each other. In this instance, there is no attempt to either convert or eliminate each other. Two groups of people or nations go to war against each other because of they have a sense of misgivings for each other that can be traced to their difference in religious convictions. An example of this was the long conflict that had characterized the relationship of the Catholics and the Protestants in North Ireland. There had been no attempt to convert each other. Neither had each religious group attempted to eliminate each other from their geographical enclaves. It had been a war that was waged by two religious groups who had found it psychologically difficult to co–exist simply because they had different religious beliefs. It might be an oversimplification but in a sense, this is how we can characterize the strained relationship between the Christian and the Muslim worlds today. That strained relationship has found an outlet in what is currently termed the "war on terrorism" being being fought

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Religion has played a major role in the lives of most cultures whether it is Christian, Islamic, Judaism, or another religious faith, but has it been the leading cause of war throughout history? God refers to sin as being the force that drives the world it provokes conduct involving one's flesh and mind. Richard Dawkins an evolutionist, and agnostic, states that "religion causes wars by generating certainty" (Thacker). When he implies certainty in his quote, does he mean that this is a fact he is certain of, or can he provide proper evidence? Warand conflict is a characteristic nature of man it was around before religion ever existed and many other factors are the cause of war such as, ethnicity, culture, ideologues, race, class, gender,...show more content...

"Yes" in a sense, that as a secondary cause religion has contributed its share of conflicts. However, the answer is "no" in the sense that religion is never the primary cause of war (Is religion the cause of). There are such wars that have to do with religion that are just wars as there is wars that have no religious ties that are also just wars. Starting war over resources, or to have control of another country is an unjust war. The Bible states that before considering the option of war first attempt to make peace. If both parties cannot come to a mutual agreement and the idea of peace is no longer an option then it is a justified war–e.g., a war of self–defense against an invader, and there are indeed times when war is necessary. Holy Wars are declared and battled because of religious or high moral purpose, and defend religion, or so to say. Anyone can say we kill in the name of God, but because someone said it does it make it true. An academic study on the subject of the role of religion in 73 major conflicts over the past 3,500 years concluded that 60% of wars had no religious provocations whatsoever and only 4% were viewed as truly religious wars (Edwards). The Crusades, which are often mistaken for pure religious wars, had other factors that contributed to its cause too. Religion caused a tiny fraction of this war. The Crusades were defensive wars waged against Muslim aggression. Christians who fought in the Crusades sought out to defend the Get more content